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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Tuesday at the Table

Right up front, I'm going to tell you that today's post is a fact-finding mission. I want to know what you know about "sous vide."

My first known encounter with sous vide was a new product at Starbucks (I live in the Pacific Northwest, remember?) - Sous Vide Egg Bites. Let's just say I like them way more than I both expected to and want to.

The sous-vide method involves vacuum-sealing and cooking either in a water bath or steam. I've heard of folks doing it at home either with a specialty oven made for that purpose or with what's called a precision-cooker, such as Anova. I even found a recipe for homemade sous vide egg bites on the Avona website!So what do you know about cooking sous vide? Do share...

14 comments:

I have a friend who uses sous vide as a way to quickly prepare a nice meal for dinner since her husband comes home on a somewhat irregular schedule due to work. She can sous vide a piece of protein and then quickly put a sear or grill marks on it when he gets home. You might check out Kenji Lopez-Alt at FoodLab he has written several articles on the topic. He is both a chef and a scientist.

It's food cooked in a water bath inside a sealed bag. Sort of like if you make creme brulee in the oven and set the ramekins in a water bath to keep the temperature even. We have one and it's super easy. We put our meat or fish or whatever in a ziploc and press the air out. Include any marinade or seasoning you like. Put the bag in the water bath, turn on the heating element and set the temperature, and you can walk away much like a slow cooker/crockpot. It's the only way my husband will cook fish because the house doesn't smell afterwards. We even made yogurt in it once using a quart mason jar. We love it. Haven't tried eggs.

I don't know a thing. I do know that these Starbucks things looked yummy to me and I read/heard that they are gluten free which is key for me. But when I went to Starbucks and asked, there is no care taken in the preparation and cross contamination would be likely. Bummer.

We (or rather, my husband) got the Anova one for Christmas before last. We are not super adventurous in what we make at home (picky kid) but it is really great for cooking fish and I like using it to hard-boil eggs. We just use a ziplock rather than a fancy vacuum sealer. I think I'm going to have to try a version of those egg bites!

I know it's supposed to be a fancy schmancy thing these days, but honestly it reminds me so much of the "boil in bag" rice that my mom used to make in the 80s, that I just can't get beyond that. I know, I know, I need to move on hahaha

My nephew, who is a chef, did a pork roast at Christmas using this. His mom had no special equipment so he did it in some sort of large container in which he kept adding hot water. It turned out great.

Oh, oh, I know this! Sous vide is chopping up the celery, carrots, etc, before you cook. Or, um, it's the name of the chef who chops things up? Or, wait....okay, I know nothing. I did see those eggs at Starbucks, though, and my friend said they were delicious. (I had a chocolate croissant, because eggs have no chocolate.)

I've seen it done on TV but that is all I know and I sure didn't know what it was called. Btw I commented on this the day you published and when I didn't hear back from you :) I came back to check and nope it wasn't there. Weird.

A friend gave me Anova when I hosted him last year. It's been great, last night I made pork loin with it because I had company during the time I'd normally prep. Yes it looks kinda bleh and finishing it in a hot pan looks great.This is where I got all my initial info on making steak (and it does make a damn good steak), and they have a lot of recipes in the sous vide section. http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/06/food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-steak.html

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